As we go about our daily lives, we ask ourselves any number of times “Is it safe to do this?” Answering that question requires experience, trust and education.

David Lassman / The Post-StandardJack Ramsden, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation

Is hydrofracking safe?

Experience would say “no” if you look at incidents of water and air pollution in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. Sure, these may be called isolated incidents, but cumulatively they have adversely affected a lot of peoples’ lives. Some of these folks had an interest in the drilling and were getting royalties, so you could say they asked for it. But some of their neighbors did not want drilling and still suffered damage to their water or air or peace and quiet.

Trust requires a faith in the regulators to do their job and the professionals to do theirs properly. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has fewer than 20 people in the Minerals Division to regulate the proposed hundreds of gas wells. They expect to “regulate by permit,” which will require faith in the drillers to follow the conditions of the permit. Is that safe?

Drilling companies are run to be efficient, make a profit, and get the job done. They will bring in people from Texas and West Virginia and Oklahoma to drill these wells. They’ll be working 24/7 on 12-hour shifts in every season, cold or hot, far away from home, and always be expected to choose safety over profitability.

Education helps answer the “Is it safe?” question, but you have to sort through an incredible amount of information being put out by the oil and gas industry on one side, and environmental groups on the other. The DEC’s draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement was over 800 pages long.

Beyond the drilling itself, there is the traffic it will generate. The DEC estimates up to 8,000 truck trips could be required for a fully developed well drilling pad. Our children will be driving on roads newly filled with hundreds of huge tractor trailer trucks taking material in and out of well sites. The roads will be impacted by this constant heavy vehicle traffic and it will in turn impact our personal vehicles. Is that safe?

And then, you learn about the water impacts. Is it safe to add any amount of toxic chemicals to our water and blast it into the ground thousands of feet down and believe that it will never find its way into our wells and aquifers and surface water? New York City says it is unsafe to drill in its watershed, which makes you wonder: What about ours?

Then, there’s “flowback.” Some of this chemical-laden water actually comes back up in worse shape than when it went in. It will be five to six times saltier than sea water. It will have naturally occurring radioactive material, not in great amounts, but in amounts too high to put in a lake that provides your drinking water. And there is no system for removing it from water in a treatment plant. Does that sound safe?

We continue to deal with pollution by an industry that thought dumping in a lake was a good way to get rid of wastes. The toxic chemicals and metals in flowback will haunt future residents like the ones on the bottom of Onondaga Lake haunt us now.

It is also disturbing to learn that these industries are not even covered by the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, or the Superfund law, thanks to the secretly negotiated 2005 energy bill. This means the costs of cleanup will be left to the landowners who signed leases and the public whether they wanted gas drilling or not. Forget about safe, does that make sense?

The industry touts jobs, prosperity and energy independence. It seems that we in Central New York, close by the shores of Onondaga Lake, would know better than most that it is not safe to be short-sighted when it comes to exploiting our resources.

Hydrofracking is not safe and should not be allowed in Central New York.

Jack Ramsden is a member of Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation. He resides in Syracuse’s Strathmore neighborhood.